WWSin
This is an Assassin build that uses the 's skill by utilizing the Chaos Rune Word. Stats *'Strength:' Enough to wear desired gear *'Dexterity:' Enough to wear desired gear *'Vitality:' everything else in here *'Energy:' Base Skills Primary Skills *Dragon Talon: Secondary Attack. *Venom: Boosts damage potential by adding poison damage. *Claw Mastery: Boosts attack rating and damage. Secondary Skills *Weapon Block: (1-10) This skill has diminishing returns, but ten points will give you a 50% chance to block any incoming attack if dual wielding claws will be a staple of the character. *Dragon Flight: (1 point) Limited Teleport, destination has to be an enemy. It is useful, however, for eliminating specific enemies and rallying minions. *Burst of Speed: Boosts movement speed and attack speed. It has some steep diminishing returns, but a single point in this can make quite a difference. *Fade: Boosts resistances, also features a 1% per point physical resistance. *Death Sentry: Like the other secondary skills, it is an optional choice, but features fire and physical damage based on a corpse's previous hit points as well as some lightning damage at lower levels. *Psychic Hammer/Mind Blast: These skills can be useful as they stun opponents. Usually, however, these skills are used more in PvP. *Cloak of Shadows: If a player plans to avoid combat at certain times, this skill will render a character nearly invisible to monsters for its duration. Unless a character is within melee range of a monster, it will act as if they are unaware of the Assassin's existence. Equipment ;Helm *Guillaume's Face: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike Bonuses. *Crown of Ages: Resistance bonuses and +1 to all skills. ;Armor * : Skill Bonus, Resistance Bonuses, Damage Bonuses. *Fortitude: 300% enhanced damage. *Enigma: +2 to all skills and Teleport. * : Venom damage bonuses, Thorns. ;Weapon * : Player can elect to use two claws or just one. Bartuc's Cut-Throat or Jade Talon are also options, if the player is going to opt for using two claws. *A player could elect to use some other weapon in their switch such as Stormlash or Fleshripper and then swap back to the Chaos claw once their opponent has their hit points pared down to a good level. ;Shield * : Mostly due to the enhanced damage offered by the runeword, although there are some other perks offered as well. * : To boost the Whirlwind skill. ;Boots *Shadow Dancer: the maximum damage boot. *Gore Riders: Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike and Open Wounds modifiers. ;Glove *Dracul's Grasp: Chosen mostly for their Life Tap proc. *Soul Drainers: Dual Leech and -50 to Monster Defense per hit. ;Belt *Arachnid Mesh: The only belt to offer +skills. *Verdungo's Hearty Cord: Physical Damage Reduction and life-related bonuses. ' big brother. ;Ring * : Mana-related bonuses and +1 to all skills. *Raven Frost: If the character has no other source of Cannot Be Frozen, this would be a good choice. *Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band: Life-related bonuses and +1 to all skills. ;Amulet *Highlord's Wrath: Deadly Strike and +1 to all skills. * : +2 to all skills and resistance bonus. Hireling Although many players solo with their characters, Hirelings can certainly increase the survivability of any character if maintained properly. Typically, most choose the Act 2 Defensive Mercenary in Nightmare Difficulty (the "Holy Freeze Merc") or the Offensive version (the "Might Merc"), but the others have plenty of potential if geared properly. The Helmet and Armor are standard choices, the only thing that would vary are the weapons. Act 3 Hirelings with cold attacks used to be popular, but are rare now due to many monsters being immune to their attacks. Although Barbarian Warriors are quite rugged, they can be overcome by large mobs. On the other hand, properly equipped, he can definitely play a major factor in increasing the character's survivability. And the Rogue Archer should not be counted out either, although without particular gear her ability to assist in later stages of the game diminishes by quite a bit. Although the weapons vary, the armor and helmet choices are mostly stock, with some variance in regards to armor. ;Helmet *Guillaume's Face: Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike. *Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest: Mostly for the 10 percent life leech and +15 to Resistances. *Vampire Gaze, Crown of Thieves and Stealskull are also popular choices for their ease of finding and life leech. *Kira's Guardian or Darksight Helm: The reason for choosing either helmet is the Cannot Be Frozen attribute. ;Armor * : 300% Enhanced damage against everything. * : Features 15% chance of Crushing Blow. *Gladiator's Bane: Cannot be Frozen and integer damage reduction at a level that actually makes a difference. *Hwanin's Refuge: Static Field proc. Still useful even if lightning immunes aren't affected by it in Hell Difficulty. * : may be of more benefit to a Rogue for the Increased Attack Speed. *Skin of the Vipermagi: Iron Wolves can make better use of the Faster Cast Rate as they usually attack from range. *Duriel's Shell: For Hirelings, this armor is prized much for being relatively easy to find, its Cannot be Frozen attribute and Vitality bonus. ;Weapon *Rogue ** : The Fanaticism aura and obscene damage are the big perks of this bow. ** : The chief reason for this selection is the Holy Freeze Aura. **Witchwild String: Amplify Damage proc and two sockets to customize it with. **Riphook: Slows opponent and Open Wounds. *Desert Mercenary **Hone Sundan: Crushing Blow and three sockets. **The Reaper's Toll: Decrepify Proc. ** : Crushing Blow and an Enchant Proc. ** : Boasts a Conviction aura. A very popular runeword for those specialized in elemental attacks as it will break many elemental immunities. ** : Has a Meditation Aura that will help alleviate mana demands. ** , , or could be added as well, as these are very powerful. They are also equally difficult to create. *Iron Wolf ** Sword and Spirit Shield: This combination will give the hireling excellent resistance bonuses as well as a total +4 to their skill levels. ** : Has +1 to all skills and a Faster Cast Rate bonus. ** : Has Cannot Be Frozen and Faster Hit Recovery. *Barbarians **Bloodletter: Fast, and has life leech. The sword will likely be obsolete by early Hell, however. **Headstriker: Level dependent Deadly Strike as well as level dependent maximum damage. ** : The base damage is a bit low, but the added damage makes this blade frightening once it can be equipped. ** : Very high damage and Attack Rating bonus. ** : a relatively cheap runeword with a Decrepify proc. ** , , are also options, albeit difficult ones considering the runes required.